Corrie ten Boom Research Awards Offer Visiting Scholars an Opportunity to Conduct Research at the Institute

The University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education announces the availability of the Corrie ten Boom Research Award.  Named for the Dutch rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust and funded by the Ahmanson Community Trust, these research awards are designed to facilitate research in the video archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute's mission is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry–and the suffering they cause–through the educational use of the Institute's visual history testimonies.  With a collection of nearly 52,000 video testimonies in 32 languages and from 56 countries, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute's archive is the largest visual history archive in the world.  The Institute interviewed Jewish survivors, homosexual survivors, Jehovah's Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti survivors (Gypsy), survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants.

Applicants for the Corrie ten Boom Research Award should either be post-doctoral scholars or dissertation writers whose research focuses on rescue and survival, broadly defined.  The term of this Award will vary from one month to six months, depending on the research program of the applicant.  Research Awards will cover the cost of round-trip economy class travel to Los Angeles, and a stipend that will vary depending upon the seniority of the applicant.  Research at the Institute must be completed by December 31, 2008.

Awarded researchers will have access to the entire visual history archive, training in the use of the Institute's digital library software, work space in the Institute, and access to funds and facilities that will facilitate the copying of testimonies for educational and/or research use at a later time.

Applicants should submit a 1,500-word description of their proposed research, a curriculum vitae, and a letter proposing the terms and dates for their research to TenBoomFellows@college.usc.edu.  All materials should be sent in Microsoft Word format or as pdf files.

Applicants are strongly urged to consult the Institute's website at sfi.usc.edu for information about the Institute, its holdings and programs.

The application deadline is Friday, November 2, 2007.